Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a control method in an image capture system having a first image capture apparatus and a second image capture apparatus, and to a control apparatus connected to a first image capture apparatus and a second image capture apparatus.
Description of the Related Art
In recent years, monitoring systems taking a form in which a plurality of cameras are employed in combination are increasing. With digitization and improvement in device capabilities, and by employing in combination cameras having differing characteristics, such as cameras having a wide-angle zoom and cameras capable of capturing in all directions, it becomes possible to configure a system taking advantage of the strong points of each of the cameras.
Approaches to capturing the same target with a plurality of cameras have been proposed previously. In Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-290962, a method is proposed in which, by transmitting template information, employed for recognizing a target in a first camera, to a second camera, tracking operations are coordinated.
Also, in “Tracking Camera Systems Using Master-Slaving for Real Space” (Ogawa Yuzo, Fujiyoshi Hironobu, 9th Image Sensing Symposium, 2003), a method of estimating three-dimensional space coordinates of feet after detecting the feet of an imaging target person from an image captured by a monocular camera, and performing image capturing having updated pan/tilt/zoom values on a second camera for which position information is calibrated in advance has been proposed.
Known techniques such as image processing, character detection, recognition, or the like, necessary to realize this kind of system are collected in “Computer Vision: Algorithms and Applications.” (Richard Szeliski. Springer, New York, 2010).
In recent years, improvements in the capabilities of cameras have advanced, and by combining image capturing elements capable of recording many pixels with wide-angle lenses, the range that can be captured by a single camera has become wider. It is necessary to search for the same imaging target in a space wider than previously envisioned in order to coordinate cameras, and there are large problems in that there exists a searching time before image capturing starts, and in that the angle of view becomes misaligned. With the methods proposed previously, because the wider the imaging range of the camera becomes, the wider the region that must be searched becomes, a long time is required before the same image capturing target is found.